Archive for November, 2011

The Chinese civilization is more Ying than Yang, soft than hard, we adore the moon and use the lunar calendar, next to New Year the Mid Autumn Moon Festival is our second most important holiday, we also praise the moon with thousands of poems , here’s one that uses the moon’s wax and wane as the ups and downs of life.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xcxCv06tXk 鄧麗君 ~~ 但願人長久
It’s a beautiful song, hope you enjoy.

Poem by Su Shi, 1,063–1,101 AD

When will the moon be clear and bright?
With a cup of wine in my hand, I ask the blue sky.
I don’t know what season it would be in the heavens on this night.
I’d like to ride the wind to fly home.
Yet I fear the crystal and jade mansions are much too high and cold for me.
Dancing with my moon-lit shadow
It does not seem like the human world
The moon rounds the red mansion Stoops to silk-pad doors
Shines upon the sleepless Bearing no grudge
Why does the moon tend to be full when people are apart?
People may have sorrow or joy, be near or far apart
The moon may be dim or bright, wax or wane
This has been going on since the beginning of time
May we all be blessed with longevity Though far apart, we are still able to share the beauty of the moon together.

Unlike the sun worshipers of Egypt, Greek , Persia and India, the Chinese moon based culture is actually quite nonaggressive, throughout history, most wars were forced upon us, the Mongolians and other nomadic tribes kept attacking our northern borders and we built the great wall for self defense.
The three pillars of Chinese civilization, Confucian, Taoism and Buddhism are all non aggressive.

Confucius taught us to conquer with virtue not with force.

Taoist talks about balancing Ying Yang and living in harmony with nature and there is never a war fought in the name of Buddha in 2500 years.
We treated Korea , Japan, Vietnam and Tibet as little brothers and they benefited greatly from us culturally and materially.
The Ming Dynasty ‘s great fleet sailed to south Asia, Africa and North and South America without trying to grab any territories like the European powers.
Even the obnoxious communist withdrew the troops from India in the 60’s and Vietnam in the 80’s wars when New Delhi and Hanoi were within grab.

The ravages and colonization of China by the western powers in the 19th century had greatly affected our psyche. Recent USA’s meddling in the South China sea’s disputes is very dangerous indeed.

This moon song has political significance, It is said that Taiwan conquered China with this song without firing a shot in the mid 70’s because since the communist took over China in 1949 all love songs were considered bourgeois decadence and counter revolutionary and was banned altogether during the 10 years of cultural revolution, so this love song was a real shock to the Chinese ears at that time and as a result all the communist propaganda about how bad Taiwan is evaporated.